It was the process of creating our motto and values which served the biggest purpose and result – sitting down together and sharing ideas about what is important to our company, the reasons we come to work every day, what we want to achieve, and what we want to provide our clients.

By identifying our goals we made it clear to each other what we are out there to collectively do, whether it be in the cellar, winemakers’ office, lab, or administration section.

Because the daily tasks in the winery involve individual and paired efforts which all combine to create one end result; to make the best wine possible.

The next step was to get work uniforms and before long we had New Zealand Wineries t-shirts, jerseys, jackets and sunhats.

Not to mention the coffee cups in the smoko room…..!

These small progressive steps have formed a strong team feel and it’s amazing how a few seemingly ‘cheesy’ words on posters around the place and logos on our clothes can make such a difference.

Aside from the aesthetic revamp, NZW is currently working towards its BRC and HACCP certification, which is all about food safety standards.

Now this really is about team work.

Assessing daily processes, identifying potential hazards, and forming methods to maintain high standards of winemaking processes and eliminating mistakes is all part of it.

It involved all of us putting our thinking caps on.

Being involved in BRC and HACCP from the cellar floor up means we can work with this structure, rather than for it, which is a positive step for everyone, from the winemaking team to the consumer.

It is a sign of the times that exporting partnerships worldwide, and in this particular case the UK, require formalised high safety standards, and moving forward into the future means embracing them.

On this note of training, there has been a strong focus on upskilling in the winery as a whole this year, not just in food safety.

Continual training has involved confined spaces , chemical handling, a two-day leadership course for winemakers, supervisors and assistants, and setting short and long-term individual goals as employees at NZW.

Because we are not just about being a top contract winemaking facility, we are also about being a safe one.

It’s timely that we launch our brand new website in this festive month, to celebrate the year that has just about closed, and look forward to the one ahead.